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Based on Aayla showing up on 2 separate "best figures of 2012" lists here, as well as JabbaJohn's "figure of the year" choice, when I found one yesterday at TRU I bought it, and to be honest... I'm not sure I understand why this figure is getting such high marks.

Let me preface by saying this is the first Aayla figure I've bought outside Clone Wars, I don't really have an attachment to the character and think her costume is a tad silly for Star Wars, but that's probably due to coming from the comics.

The claim that this looks just like actress Amy Allen is baffeling to me, there's a huge picture of the character portrayed by Ms Allen on the card and the figure looks nothing like that face. Don't get me wrong, the figure's face is attractive but the figure's eyes are smaller and smokier (Amy Allen's eyes are big and round and inquisitive, they pop out as the character because the rest of the face is colored blue), the nose is narrower, the upper face wider, and the horn/ear things are far too low compared to the actress as the character.

Then there's the skin color, which is simply too dark, and the blue has a bit of a hue difference as well. The deco on the figure is otherwise good, although the lip rouge paint is overboard.

My biggest problem with the figure though is the hips, as soon as I got this figure off the card and out of the robe, the hips were attrocious and got worse when I started using them. The figure is pear-shaped, there's no way around this, the articulation requires too much space (despite her myriad of other joints being very nicely proportioned) so she has thunder thighs at the top and her hips are significantly wider than her shoulders. I can't get past the width of those hips compared to her shoulders, the character is somewhat svelte and this figure loses that entirely. Then, to add insult to injury, the joint requires a sideways hinge that hinges from almost the middle of the thigh, so there's no spread-leg action pose this figure can take that won't look like someone snapped her femur in half - the design of that joint has no understanding of human anatomy, or more likely simply threw out that knowledge to shoehorn the joint onto a body which couldn't support it.

The final issue is her accessories, the lightsaber hilts are too big, and the shoulders on her robe are too wide.

It's not a bad figure, the face is pleasant, the articulation works well except for the hips, the sculpt is generally alright, the paint good, but I don't see it coming close to "top marks" territory and don't understand it. Is the love due to attachment to the character? I have none, so that doesn't affect me with this figure. Is it about being so much better than previous realistic Aayla figures? I've heard they are pretty mediocre, so I didn't bother there either, but as much an improvement as this might be, is that enough of a reason to elevate it to "best of 2012" territory over the quality of its own merits?

Also, I finally found a red-bandana Kithaba and picked it up, it looks way better than the brown version, but overall it doesn't help that figure, it's still too lanky compared to the character.

Originally Posted by RendarStillLives

Thanks. I appreciate the help but I will just stick with the new screen name. I remember the email address, just not the password for it so even if you sent my login info to it I couldn't retrieve it.

Ah, ok. There ya go then.

As far as TCW goes some of my favorite episodes were Obi-Wan going under cover. Alec Guines's portrayal of Ben seemed more like a mischievious old man while the prequels have him act like a by the book Jedi in TPM, kind of a hypocrite in AOTC and getting more care free by ROTS. I like seeing that character growth. Plo Koon is also a character I have never thought much of but has become a favorite because of the cartoon.

I couldn't agree more than the majority of the time, Obi-Wan's AOTC and TCW personality is very stick in the mud, kind of a Jedi snob, and I find it grating because the problem is clearly the writing. He's constantly nagging and acting superior and humorless, it was good to see him break out of that mold.

As for Transformers the TFP Vehicon was a engineering marvel! I passed on the MP-10 Optimus. There are things I like about it compared to the MP-01 version like the scale and trailer but there were just as many cons (pardon the pun). I am crossing my fingers for a white repaint and different trailer that becomes armor so I can finally have a masterpiece Ultra Magnus. TFP Ultra Magnus is pretty cool but he could use a lot of paint to bring out his sculpted details.

I spotted TFP Ultra Magnus for $13 at TJ Maxx the other day, but kids wanted him so bad that I couldn't help but hand it to them. I have the Cyberverse one anyway.

Sadly Hasbro's big sell for 2011 barely made it to stores with Bruticus. I saw 3 of the Combaticons once and never again. Some online places had the set going for more than $100. I received both the retail and G2 versions for Christmas (minus the retail brawl). I have mixed emotions about Bruticus but have already seen wave 3 hit stores and unless they refresh the Combaticons I have a feeling a lot of folks missed their chance on getting it.

I've been seeing the Combaticons on shelves for the past few months and they sell very fast, so I guess it's working. I hear ya on mixed feelings for Bruticus, I like the Combaticon figures more than the combiner robot, and that's due largely to Onslaught being such a small figure and so compromised. Still, glad to hear you got 'em, I love that G2 set for the silly fun experience where I normally don't get into such things.

My TVC Darth Maul's lightsaber hilt doesn't plug into his belt. The hole is too shallow. I wasn't sure if it was just mine but between the front of his cloak and his arm there doesn't seem to be a lot of room to hang it there anyways.

Mine juuuuust barely plugs into the belt, it's a very shallow peg hole, I think I have a tool that could drill it out a little, I should try that.

I only ever saw shirtless Opress. I never found the armored version which I wanted. I could have picked up the 3-pack I suppose but it just didn't appeal to me as a set.

Same here. I did buy the 3pack partly for armored Savage and partly for the Sith Witch figure. Armored Savage is ok but not as impressive as I was expecting, and he doesn't have his lightsabers which is downright disappointing.

Hm. Both the Nom Anors I have look like blue pupils and I guess I didn't notice if one eye was more black because I chalked it up to poor paint applications. Lol. I guess from reading the books I expected it to look a lot more different than Columbo's glass eye.

It should be at least a different color rather than blue with a black iris. I saw another yesterday, same thing, you could barely tell. Some apparently have an all-black iris area, that would have been better.

I was referring to the Saga Blue and Gold card for Qui-Gon's lightsaber. I know they have gone away from using the removable blades but they still use a lot of the hilts from those and have either made new sculpts or simply molded them as one piece. I figured they could do the same with Qui-Gon's saber. It was slimmer and had the burst effect as is standard on all lightsabers these days.

Ah, yeah. I've been griping for years now about QGJ's crappy saber accessory and Luke ROTJ's crappy saber accessory - with Luke they just gave up and repainted the Obi-Wan prequel accessory instead, which is so annoying to me.

Was I the only one who was able to find the light up Saber Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon? They sculpts are superior to TVC versions and the brightness of the lightsabers you have to see to believe. The articulation isn't what we have come to expect from TVC. The right arm is straight, the left arm has universal elbows as do the knees and the hips and shoulders just go back and forth. No waist, ankle or wrist articulation. Heads are on ball joints and are the best representations of the characters so far imo. The joints are well hidden too except on Kenobi's right arm if you have it bent. I just threw on their Legacy counterparts robes to hide it and the straight right arms. They are also easy to spot on pegs thanks to the big arrows on the bubble pointing to their crotches saying "try me". If you don't have them you're missing out.

I found them once, but the high price and the wide, boxy shoulders turned me off, not to mention the inability to remove the batteries meant that eventually the batteries might leak out the waist joint and render the figure trash. Haven't seen any light-up MH figures since.

From the detail I saw on TVC AOTC Anakin's sabers I am disappointed they don't paint all the sabers so well. Almost every version of TPM Kenobi's saber in few years has been inaccurate. Just that little attention to detail and I would have picked the TVC version up.

Agreed.

I'm surprised the new Bikerscout didn't have a removable helmet or flip up visor since I've seen versions of it that do have that feature. Maybe it's worth another look after all. Would the feet of the new speederbike...

...peg into the slots in the back of the Republic Gunship?

No, they'd be too short, but it wouldn't matter since the new Speederbike doesn't come apart, so there'd be no room for it in the Gunship (the one it works with comes apart at the middle).

Lol. I play BF2 with my kids on splitscreen. Wife gets on my case about going over gigs. Which is why I try using my phone for these posts which is unlimited. So if you can point me in the direction of someone who does unlimited gigs for a mobile hotspot at a reasonable price then you'd be making both of us happy.

Splitscreeen with your kids? That is pretty awesome!

Virgin Mobile has an unlimited mobile broadband prepaid but it's got a huge catch, it's only unlimited while on the Sprint 4g WiMax network (the one they're phasing out), and if you go over 500mb a day or 10gb a month they throttle you to 2mbps (which is actually usable for online gaming, but mobile broadband I suspect has too much latency for online gaming). I currently have the Sprint 4g WiMax on my phone, it has occasional disconnects for no reason, and a very limited service area, but when it's connected at its best it's 10mbps download and 1mbps upload @ 146ms latency which is fair.

Yeah. Because the last couple years have been so rough being a collector I have started to dabble in other areas like Kotobokay....whatevers artfx statues and legos. Pre-ordered my 10 year old the Jaina statue (her favorite character) but it keeps getting pushed back and I am afraid it won't be here by her birthday. I swear that thing was supposed to come out 3rd quarter 2011.

"Kotobukiya", and yeah, I hear ya, they're great pieces when Hasbro disappoints. That's the second time you wrote "2011" when you meant 2012, I think. I'm surprised that Jaina statue got pushed back, it's a pretty straightforward piece, when is your daughter's birthday?

Star Wars Kinect we started the campaign but the sub games for it are more fun. It is a workout. PX90 eat your heart out. The Kinect also refuses to recognize my 4 year old for some reason much to his dismay cause we got him angry birds for it. I'm surprised you don't have an X-Box. Almost everyone I know prefers it to PS3 but me. I got it last tax season so the kids wouldn't wanna play my PS3 all the time. Lol.

What the heck with your 4 year old, have you called Microsoft for help? Maybe his clothes were too baggy or something? The Kinect too high to read his body proportions?

I don't have an xbox for 2 reasons: I won a PS3 back in the day, and I don't want to pay a monthly fee for online access. Plus, the whole red ring of death thing, the awfulness of the original xbox controller turned me off for a long time to the current one (yet I now own 2 of the corded current design for my PC), and just Microsoft in general kinda made me wonder if it was worth it. And there wasn't any exclusive content I really was dying to get, whereas the PS3 exclusive titles like God of War and Uncharted and Motorstorm are all very appealing to me.

Ah. I thought the big Slave-1 was 2011 because I didn't see it hit shelves til the holidays at TRU and then so it on end caps forever spring of 2012. I don't think it ever dropped below $90 on clearance. I was hoping it would. I wouldn't mind AOTC or ESB paint job. I liked it. I just wish it had been cheaper or packed with stuff I would want like a TVC Naboo Fighter. Hopefully it won't be that tiny Yoda Package one I have seen on Rebelscum. I still have my SOTE version to tide me over until we get a decent release.

No, not the awful new Class II Fleet one, they were clearly talking about the big Slave I from the Clone Wars ultimate battle pack you're thinking of - hopefully we get news next month of its release. Like you, I have my SOTE one to tide me over, and I'm starting to think it may stay that way with the way things are getting so expensive and canceled, but I'm still hopeful.

I'm glad to see all the usual suspects here but I am a little surprised there aren't more responses with this thread being up for over a week.

Totally agree!

Oh! Forgot to mention the light up Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon one more time. :-)

The bottom portion of their tunics is soft rubber and removable via tab/peg so they fit into vehicles just fine but the included instruction manual (telling you to push the belt buckle to make them light up. Wtf?) Doesn't show how to replace the batteries.

Again, sorry for all the multiple posts. You mods already do a ton of volunteer work here and I don't mean to make it any harder on you.

Don't worry about the multiple posts, this is fine for now.

The batteries on the Movie Heroes light-up figures are not replaceable, that's why there's no mention of it in the instructions - it says on the front of the card for each in the tiniest lettering "nonreplaceable batteries included", not enough info IMO for the consumer to make an informed choice.

Darth Vader is becoming the Mickey Mouse of Star Wars.

"In Brooklyn, a castle, is where dwell I"

The use of a lightsaber does not make one a Jedi, it is the ability to not use it.

JT, you're saying you never bought any Aayla Secura figure at all, even back in 2002?

That's somewhat impressive.

Yup, and I wouldn't have bought any ever were it not for such strong recommendations here. I've also not bought any Eeth Koths, Luminara Undulis, or Barriss Offees - to me, the prequels have made Jedi characters into a ton of overhyped alien nobodies and I just don't feel any need to have everything when it has no impact for me. Like "oh, you stood there and did nothing for 3 movies, or you appeared for 3 seconds and got shot? Well, have a bunch of expensive action figures then!"

Darth Vader is becoming the Mickey Mouse of Star Wars.

"In Brooklyn, a castle, is where dwell I"

The use of a lightsaber does not make one a Jedi, it is the ability to not use it.

It's not a bad figure, the face is pleasant, the articulation works well except for the hips, the sculpt is generally alright, the paint good, but I don't see it coming close to "top marks" territory and don't understand it. Is the love due to attachment to the character? I have none, so that doesn't affect me with this figure. Is it about being so much better than previous realistic Aayla figures? I've heard they are pretty mediocre, so I didn't bother there either, but as much an improvement as this might be, is that enough of a reason to elevate it to "best of 2012" territory over the quality of its own merits?

I don't have any real attachment to the character at all, since I've kind of sworn off of Prequel figures for the most part.

I actually bought the figure loose off of eBay with the rest of that wave, so I never got to see her cardback until several weeks later when the wave started showing up in stores.

So I started with absolutely zero expectations and the figure totally blew me away. However, I've never taken the time to compare her to any photos of the actress. To me the figure stands on its own enough that its accuracy to the onscreen character is somewhat irrelevant. I've never really been an Aayla Secura fan anyway.

And I actually like the wider hips because it makes her look more feminine, IMO. Again, not really sure if that's accurate to the actress' figure, but I haven't bothered to check.

Originally Posted by JediTricks

Also, I finally found a red-bandana Kithaba and picked it up, it looks way better than the brown version, but overall it doesn't help that figure, it's still too lanky compared to the character.

That's cool that you found one. I'm kind of torn on which version I like better, because they are both accurate from a certain point of view and both are inaccurate from a certain point of view.

The red bandana is closer to the proper hue, but the brown bandana is closer to the proper tone. However neither one is the correct color.

"To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence… When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up." - C.S. Lewis

I don't have any real attachment to the character at all, since I've kind of sworn off of Prequel figures for the most part.

I actually bought the figure loose off of eBay with the rest of that wave, so I never actually got to see her cardback until several weeks later when the wave started showing up in stores.

So I started with absolutely zero expectations and the figure totally blew me away. However, I've never actually taken the time to compare her to any photos of the actress. To me the figure stands on its own enough that its accuracy to the onscreen character is somewhat irrelevant. I've never really been an Aayla Secura fan anyway.

And I actually like the wider hips because it makes her look more feminine, IMO. Again, not really sure if that's accurate to the actress' figure, but I haven't bothered to check.

The stuff about the accuracy of the likeness is more about JabbaJohn's take on the figure, as well as other reviews I've seen.

Surprised that, of all people, you - the studier of organic shapes - would find this figure's proportions to be a positive. I mean, it is a female body shape - pear shaped, aka triangle - but it struck me as a bit dumpy with the extremely wide hips and behind, it just looks out of proportion to my eye, the character is presented in this sculpt alone as being fit and lithe yet the hips and thighs are from a different figure.

That's cool that you found one. I'm kind of torn on which version I like better, because they are both accurate from a certain point of view and both are inaccurate from a certain point of view.

The red bandana is closer to the proper hue, but the brown bandana is closer to the proper tone. However neither one is the correct color.

The red bandana matches the tone when he's being pulled into the Sarlacc, while the brown just doesn't have any correspondence to anything on screen for me - yeah, the bandana seems to have been wetted down to suggest sweat in some shots, but it's still red, it's not as dark as even the images on your own site and those are pulled from compressed video sources (red and green lose vibrance more than other colors in image compression). And even still, had they used a brown with more red in it, it would have been acceptable, but this is just dark brown like his holster and bandolier which no shot in the movie says to me is accurate. Of course, had they not gotten the pants' tone wrong too, it'd probably not feel like the red bandana variant was overboard.

Darth Vader is becoming the Mickey Mouse of Star Wars.

"In Brooklyn, a castle, is where dwell I"

The use of a lightsaber does not make one a Jedi, it is the ability to not use it.

The red bandana matches the tone when he's being pulled into the Sarlacc, while the brown just doesn't have any correspondence to anything on screen for me - yeah, the bandana seems to have been wetted down to suggest sweat in some shots, but it's still red, it's not as dark as even the images on your own site and those are pulled from compressed video sources (red and green lose vibrance more than other colors in image compression). And even still, had they used a brown with more red in it, it would have been acceptable, but this is just dark brown like his holster and bandolier which no shot in the movie says to me is accurate. Of course, had they not gotten the pants' tone wrong too, it'd probably not feel like the red bandana variant was overboard.

I used the wrong term, I should have said "value" not "tone" even though the concepts are related. Value is sometimes referred to as "brightness." According to some understandings of color theory, there are three properties to every color: hue, saturation and value (brightness).

Hue is the actual color, be it red, blue, green, etc.

Saturation is how pale or strong the color is and is dependent on the amount and type of light present. Which is why one color can appear to be two different colors under multiple lighting conditions.

Value or brightness refers to the relative lightness or darkness of the color. If you add more black, then the color gets a lower value, if you add more white, then the color is brighter and has a higher value. Value is also dependent on the amount of light present. So it's easy to mistake for saturation, but they are different concepts. Value measures the brightness of the color, saturation measures the strength of the color.

So, you can have a red and a green that have the same saturation or value, but they are still two completely different hues.

Also, using the HSV (Photoshop refers to it as HSB) color sliders, then you will see that red and brown are actually related. Brown is just a desaturated version of red or orange with a low value; but that wasn't really my point.

When I said that the brown bandana is a more accurate value, I was talking about the relative brightness of the bandana in contrast to his skin tone.

This is best illustrated when you compare the figures to the onscreen costume in black & white:

As you can see, the darker value of the brown bandana is closer to the actual value of the onscreen bandana as it contrasts with the mask's skin tone. The red bandana blends in with the skin tone too much in comparison. This is why the brown bandana just "feels" more accurate to some people.

However, color itself is a very subjective thing, since no two people perceive colors in the same way. So what feels right to one person, is not necessarily going to feel right to someone else. This is why it's called "color theory" and there is no "color law."

"To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence… When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up." - C.S. Lewis

Based on Aayla showing up on 2 separate "best figures of 2012" lists here, as well as JabbaJohn's "figure of the year" choice, when I found one yesterday at TRU I bought it, and to be honest... I'm not sure I understand why this figure is getting such high marks.

It's not a bad figure, the face is pleasant, the articulation works well except for the hips, the sculpt is generally alright, the paint good, but I don't see it coming close to "top marks" territory and don't understand it. Is the love due to attachment to the character? I have none, so that doesn't affect me with this figure. Is it about being so much better than previous realistic Aayla figures? I've heard they are pretty mediocre, so I didn't bother there either, but as much an improvement as this might be, is that enough of a reason to elevate it to "best of 2012" territory over the quality of its own merits?

Also, I finally found a red-bandana Kithaba and picked it up, it looks way better than the brown version, but overall it doesn't help that figure, it's still too lanky compared to the character.

I have an Aayla and a Barriss I felt I needed but haven't bothered to open since my disappointments with Maul and Hoth Luke so I can't really comment on them. I was pretty happy with the ROTS Aayla but felt the updated figure would be the ONE Aayla and never need another. This is why I loved the VTC Jango so much. As you pointed it he is largely just a retool of a figure we have plenty of but as far as my needs go he has everything to re-enact all his major scenes in AOTC and he isn't purple. I also love that they made the peg of the rocket in translucent flame rather than just a pole. In the movies and even literature Jango didn't do much. Still, he seemed more honor bound than Boba ever was and the whole Mandolorian way of life matches up with a lot of my beliefs and a society I fantasize about living in with the exception of whatever they are trying to turn it into on TCW. The cartoon seems very different than the novels.

I agree with what you are saying about wall characters being over hyped but look at half the screen names on here. Or that many of us would rather see a Zora (Siri Tachi), cantina alien, Jabba's palace character than another Luke figure. Even characters without EU bios are great just because a fan's imagination can create an infinite number of stories for such characters while Luke and Han are tied down fighting the greater fight. Aayla appeals to women as a strong character in EU stories and as far as chicks in Star Wars go she is pretty. In the OT we basically had Leia and Ooola, a couple elderly gals and what I can't decide is an overweight man or women with three sets of breasts.

From the current discussion on Aayla it seems like parts of characters are being made more generic to save tooling costs and use on multiple characters. Sounds the same with paint too on the Kithaba bandana. Where perhaps the costs only justify using so many colors per character, especially such a fan specific one.

I spotted TFP Ultra Magnus for $13 at TJ Maxx the other day, but kids wanted him so bad that I couldn't help but hand it to them. I have the Cyberverse one anyway.

That's a good deal! And a good deed. Though the Cyberverse figures are quite expensive for their size I can't help but marvel at how they squeeze in all the small parts and details when compared to figures three times as large or more that have less engineering and crapy paint apps. My thoughts were the same with the late Thundercats 3.75" figures vs. the 6" ones. I do enjoy my Cyberverse Magnus more than the voyager figure but there are more sculpted details than at first glance and some extra steps transforming the arms and legs (which are cool) on the bigger version. A little paint would improve the voyager figure a ton and I can't stand the mechtech weapons they come with.

I've been seeing the Combaticons on shelves for the past few months and they sell very fast, so I guess it's working. I hear ya on mixed feelings for Bruticus, I like the Combaticon figures more than the combiner robot, and that's due largely to Onslaught being such a small figure and so compromised. Still, glad to hear you got 'em, I love that G2 set for the silly fun experience where I normally don't get into such things.

The original Onslaught was just a Deluxe so that really doesn't bother me and the combined Bruticus is pretty large standing next to FOC Starscream and WFC Megatron and Soundwave. Onslaught looks great but the lack of shoulder movement, tiny elbows and the kibble hanging off his rear really knock it down. I won't review each character unless there is a big desire for me to do so. Combined they don't look like vehicles at all and barely so individually. Bruticus largely looks like a humanoid junkheap. I have knits to pick about elbow and knee joints looking so fragile on the robot modes but I do like them for the most part and that each character can be either arm or legs so you can combine them any way you want even though the instructions don't show it.

It should be at least a different color rather than blue with a black iris. I saw another yesterday, same thing, you could barely tell. Some apparently have an all-black iris area, that would have been better.

It probably is. I haven't looked that closely. I assumed it would be more like a brown sack in his eye socket with a black center representing where the poison spits from. the way it is done on the figure makes more sense if he is trying to be incognito though.

No, they'd be too short, but it wouldn't matter since the new Speederbike doesn't come apart, so there'd be no room for it in the Gunship (the one it works with comes apart at the middle).

That's disappointing. I know the original POTF version doesn't. Would the speederbike from the Blizzard Troopers pack work or do I have to hunt down the original Clone Wars Deluxe?

Virgin Mobile has an unlimited mobile broadband prepaid but it's got a huge catch, it's only unlimited while on the Sprint 4g WiMax network (the one they're phasing out), and if you go over 500mb a day or 10gb a month they throttle you to 2mbps (which is actually usable for online gaming, but mobile broadband I suspect has too much latency for online gaming). I currently have the Sprint 4g WiMax on my phone, it has occasional disconnects for no reason, and a very limited service area, but when it's connected at its best it's 10mbps download and 1mbps upload @ 146ms latency which is fair.

My friend, all I understood of that was Virgin Mobile and Sprint. The rest is Japanese. Luckily my better half knows what you are talking about and she doesn't seem convinced that it's better than the Sprint hotspot we already have. I like the unlimited part but she says it's about the speed and doesn't know too much about video games to quantify what the needs are. I have Virgin for my phone cause I get the same stuff she does for half the cost and no contract. I asked about going through the cable company and she said it would be about $30 a month for the first 6 months but then would go up to $50 after that. Not sure what to do.

"Kotobukiya", and yeah, I hear ya, they're great pieces when Hasbro disappoints. That's the second time you wrote "2011" when you meant 2012, I think. I'm surprised that Jaina statue got pushed back, it's a pretty straightforward piece, when is your daughter's birthday?

Yeah. I'm the guy still writing 2012 on his checks too. Sigh.

What the heck with your 4 year old, have you called Microsoft for help? Maybe his clothes were too baggy or something? The Kinect too high to read his body proportions?

No. I can see him in the little green box as it tries to recognize him but my best guess is it thinks he's a dog or something. Like there must be a height limit or the couch behind him is obscuring what the sensor reads but even in bright colors it doesn't register him as a player. He isn't short either.

I don't have an xbox for 2 reasons: I won a PS3 back in the day, and I don't want to pay a monthly fee for online access. Plus, the whole red ring of death thing, the awfulness of the original xbox controller turned me off for a long time to the current one (yet I now own 2 of the corded current design for my PC), and just Microsoft in general kinda made me wonder if it was worth it. And there wasn't any exclusive content I really was dying to get, whereas the PS3 exclusive titles like God of War and Uncharted and Motorstorm are all very appealing to me.

I hear you. I went with PS3 originally because the hardware just seemed superior to me. Plus within a year of launch microsoft had released a handful of variants. My friend bought an Elite model and after all the upgrades spent $1,000 to match the features I paid $350 for that already came in a PS3. Iroically people were putting down the PS3 because of it's price over an Xbox 360 not considering what you get between the two systems other than they both play video games. Even today I can walk into Best Buy and justify a PS3 over an 360 based on the hardrive space alone. Is a Corvette just a Chevy? Metal Gear is another reason I stuck with Sony. Playstation seems to be letting a lot of exclusives go lately though. I also prefer the ergonomics of the Playstation controller to the Xbox ones but I just chalked that up to being use to a PS2 over the original Xbox.

No, not the awful new Class II Fleet one, they were clearly talking about the big Slave I from the Clone Wars ultimate battle pack you're thinking of - hopefully we get news next month of its release. Like you, I have my SOTE one to tide me over, and I'm starting to think it may stay that way with the way things are getting so expensive and canceled, but I'm still hopeful.

Thank God! Makes me wonder why they even bothered to spend the money on tooling the new mold then? They could have put that cost elsewhere. Yeah, I won't buy it individually it's going to be $100. . If they can keep it around $40 maybe $50 then I'm sold.

The batteries on the Movie Heroes light-up figures are not replaceable, that's why there's no mention of it in the instructions - it says on the front of the card for each in the tiniest lettering "nonreplaceable batteries included", not enough info IMO for the consumer to make an informed choice.

They're still the highlight of 2012 for me. As I said before I don't want Hasbro to go crazy and make every Jedi in the same fashion but Ben, Vader and Jedi/Bespin Luke would be too awesome to pass up. Maybe a Threepio with light up eyes like came with Chewy once upon a time but actually having his body together.

I'm really surprised nobody else wants to rap up the year, last year the concept was pretty popular, lots of differences of opinion.

Originally Posted by bigbarada

I used the wrong term, I should have said "value" not "tone" even though the concepts are related. Value is sometimes referred to as "brightness." According to some understandings of color theory, there are three properties to every color: hue, saturation and value (brightness).

Hue is the actual color, be it red, blue, green, etc.

Saturation is how pale or strong the color is and is dependent on the amount and type of light present. Which is why one color can appear to be two different colors under multiple lighting conditions.

Value or brightness refers to the relative lightness or darkness of the color. If you add more black, then the color gets a lower value, if you add more white, then the color is brighter and has a higher value. Value is also dependent on the amount of light present. So it's easy to mistake for saturation, but they are different concepts. Value measures the brightness of the color, saturation measures the strength of the color.

So, you can have a red and a green that have the same saturation or value, but they are still two completely different hues.

Also, using the HSV (Photoshop refers to it as HSB) color sliders, then you will see that red and brown are actually related. Brown is just a desaturated version of red or orange with a low value; but that wasn't really my point.

When I said that the brown bandana is a more accurate value, I was talking about the relative brightness of the bandana in contrast to his skin tone.

This is best illustrated when you compare the figures to the onscreen costume in black & white:

As you can see, the darker value of the brown bandana is closer to the actual value of the onscreen bandana as it contrasts with the mask's skin tone. The red bandana blends in with the skin tone too much in comparison. This is why the brown bandana just "feels" more accurate to some people.

However, color itself is a very subjective thing, since no two people perceive colors in the same way. So what feels right to one person, is not necessarily going to feel right to someone else. This is why it's called "color theory" and there is no "color law."

In any case though, even if we accepted the value as accurate, the brown figure's hue is entirely wrong for the bandana and its saturation is a few stops off as well, and those both mean more to color IMO than lightness/value. I took the photo of 'em both from RS and jammed Saturation to the top, then the Hue to 180. In the Saturation shift, Red's bandana got very vibrant while Brown's bandana stayed nearly the same because of how little color there actually is, just a hint of purple came out. In the Hue shift to the exact opposite side of the color wheel, notice how much Red's bandana changes while Brown's bandana changes almost not at all:

I'll do the same with your image, off-the-charts Saturation and then 180 Hue:
In your shot, the only color in the bandana is coming off your warm lighting, and when the hue is shifted it still looks the same because there's no color in Brown's bandana, it's not even really "brown" but more "off-black" because of the lack of any color.

Originally Posted by RendarStillLives

This is why I loved the VTC Jango so much. As you pointed it he is largely just a retool of a figure we have plenty of but as far as my needs go he has everything to re-enact all his major scenes in AOTC and he isn't purple.

I'm not sure I understand your point about the color, the TVC figure is the same purple as the Evolutions original it's based on.

From the current discussion on Aayla it seems like parts of characters are being made more generic to save tooling costs and use on multiple characters. Sounds the same with paint too on the Kithaba bandana. Where perhaps the costs only justify using so many colors per character, especially such a fan specific one.

I am pretty sure they said Kithaba's bandana was a mistake at the factory level and Lucasfilm requested a fix for accuracy.

That's a good deal! And a good deed. Though the Cyberverse figures are quite expensive for their size I can't help but marvel at how they squeeze in all the small parts and details when compared to figures three times as large or more that have less engineering and crapy paint apps. My thoughts were the same with the late Thundercats 3.75" figures vs. the 6" ones. I do enjoy my Cyberverse Magnus more than the voyager figure but there are more sculpted details than at first glance and some extra steps transforming the arms and legs (which are cool) on the bigger version. A little paint would improve the voyager figure a ton and I can't stand the mechtech weapons they come with.

The other night at a different TJ Maxx closer to my house, more Voyager UMs and no kids so I bought it and TFP Rumble ($7!). While I like the paint work and weapon more on the Cyberverse, the Voyager is a more satisfying figure in terms of transformation and range of motion - the shoulders on the Cyberverse are very frustrating for some reason despite being very similar in concept.

The Thundercats figure thing was really bad, Bandai for some reason just wanted cheap-looking big figures with low detail.

The original Onslaught was just a Deluxe so that really doesn't bother me and the combined Bruticus is pretty large standing next to FOC Starscream and WFC Megatron and Soundwave.

It probably is. I haven't looked that closely. I assumed it would be more like a brown sack in his eye socket with a black center representing where the poison spits from. the way it is done on the figure makes more sense if he is trying to be incognito though.

Hasbro goes on the visual art they have, mostly comics, sometimes book covers, and it seems to match the general look of the art supplied except blue instead of brown.

That's disappointing. I know the original POTF version doesn't. Would the speederbike from the Blizzard Troopers pack work or do I have to hunt down the original Clone Wars Deluxe?

The Blizzard Bike battle pack uses the original 1983 mold with the T-bar and exploding gimmick. I don't know that the exploding gimmick speeder bikes wouldn't fit in it as I've never tried to fit them in the Gunship, but I doubt it as the Gunship's pegs were designed especially for the Clone Wars dlx you mentioned, and the only re-use of that is the speeder bike that came with the AT-AT.

My friend, all I understood of that was Virgin Mobile and Sprint. The rest is Japanese. Luckily my better half knows what you are talking about and she doesn't seem convinced that it's better than the Sprint hotspot we already have. I like the unlimited part but she says it's about the speed and doesn't know too much about video games to quantify what the needs are. I have Virgin for my phone cause I get the same stuff she does for half the cost and no contract. I asked about going through the cable company and she said it would be about $30 a month for the first 6 months but then would go up to $50 after that. Not sure what to do.

Ah, I hear ya, not everybody is technologically-inclined for mobile. If you guys have a Sprint 4G WIMAX Hotspot already, you may be able to get the Virgin Mobile unlimited service, she should contact them first to see if they'd do that. It's definitely worth looking into if your Sprint bill is high - and it likely is.

Cable internet does go around $50 a month, I'm using Earthlink service who goes through my regular cable internet, so I'm paying $41 a month instead of that $50. I like the cable internet way more than my old DSL phone line internet, but the speed with cable is pretty much maxed out already.

No. I can see him in the little green box as it tries to recognize him but my best guess is it thinks he's a dog or something. Like there must be a height limit or the couch behind him is obscuring what the sensor reads but even in bright colors it doesn't register him as a player. He isn't short either.

It works by identifying his body proportions - torso to head, legs, and arms - so if he's wearing baggy clothes and he's little then it wouldn't be able to identify his arms and legs. I suggest you contact their support though, it's worth checking out, it may be that the camera is too high or something easy to fix.

Thank God! Makes me wonder why they even bothered to spend the money on tooling the new mold then? They could have put that cost elsewhere. Yeah, I won't buy it individually it's going to be $100. . If they can keep it around $40 maybe $50 then I'm sold.

I highly doubt it'll go for under $70, they couldn't sell the Y-wing Bomber under $70 at mass retail. Frustrating, no?

They're still the highlight of 2012 for me. As I said before I don't want Hasbro to go crazy and make every Jedi in the same fashion but Ben, Vader and Jedi/Bespin Luke would be too awesome to pass up. Maybe a Threepio with light up eyes like came with Chewy once upon a time but actually having his body together.

If it comes up at Comic-Con, I'll mention those ideas. Had Hasbro gotten product out in greater numbers it'd be easier to judge the success of them.

Darth Vader is becoming the Mickey Mouse of Star Wars.

"In Brooklyn, a castle, is where dwell I"

The use of a lightsaber does not make one a Jedi, it is the ability to not use it.

Based on Aayla showing up on 2 separate "best figures of 2012" lists here, as well as JabbaJohn's "figure of the year" choice, when I found one yesterday at TRU I bought it, and to be honest... I'm not sure I understand why this figure is getting such high marks.

Let me preface by saying this is the first Aayla figure I've bought outside Clone Wars, I don't really have an attachment to the character and think her costume is a tad silly for Star Wars, but that's probably due to coming from the comics.

The claim that this looks just like actress Amy Allen is baffeling to me, there's a huge picture of the character portrayed by Ms Allen on the card and the figure looks nothing like that face. Don't get me wrong, the figure's face is attractive but the figure's eyes are smaller and smokier (Amy Allen's eyes are big and round and inquisitive, they pop out as the character because the rest of the face is colored blue), the nose is narrower, the upper face wider, and the horn/ear things are far too low compared to the actress as the character.

Then there's the skin color, which is simply too dark, and the blue has a bit of a hue difference as well. The deco on the figure is otherwise good, although the lip rouge paint is overboard.

My biggest problem with the figure though is the hips, as soon as I got this figure off the card and out of the robe, the hips were attrocious and got worse when I started using them. The figure is pear-shaped, there's no way around this, the articulation requires too much space (despite her myriad of other joints being very nicely proportioned) so she has thunder thighs at the top and her hips are significantly wider than her shoulders. I can't get past the width of those hips compared to her shoulders, the character is somewhat svelte and this figure loses that entirely. Then, to add insult to injury, the joint requires a sideways hinge that hinges from almost the middle of the thigh, so there's no spread-leg action pose this figure can take that won't look like someone snapped her femur in half - the design of that joint has no understanding of human anatomy, or more likely simply threw out that knowledge to shoehorn the joint onto a body which couldn't support it.

The final issue is her accessories, the lightsaber hilts are too big, and the shoulders on her robe are too wide.

It's not a bad figure, the face is pleasant, the articulation works well except for the hips, the sculpt is generally alright, the paint good, but I don't see it coming close to "top marks" territory and don't understand it. Is the love due to attachment to the character? I have none, so that doesn't affect me with this figure. Is it about being so much better than previous realistic Aayla figures? I've heard they are pretty mediocre, so I didn't bother there either, but as much an improvement as this might be, is that enough of a reason to elevate it to "best of 2012" territory over the quality of its own merits?

It's not attachment to the character - I didn't read her origin comics and she doesn't do anything that noteworthy in the films or TV show. I do like the prequel Jedi overall more than you do, I know, so there's that. Part of it could be that she's more visually striking than many of the figures released this year, which matters to me - I mean, Colonel Cracken's not going to get top honors. It could also partly be that it's so much better than previous Aayla figures - not that those were bad, but as a sign of progression showing what Hasbro is now capable of compared to previously in the line, Aayla is a fantastic example.

I only singled out her and Vader's "gorgeous sculpts," and I was referring to the figures overall, not meaning to imply that Aayla was the spitting image of Amy Allen. I don't think it's the greatest likeness they've ever done, but it looks like her enough in my book. In this scale, features have to be changed now and then to maintain the overall look of the character, so I don't think any of the liberties taken with this figure are that egregious or out of the norm for this line.

On the hip issue, again, I'm willing to let accuracy slide from time to time if it means it benefits the figure overall. The 2005 Aayla actually has skinny thighs similar to VOTC Han, which is a solution that I dislike. The TVC version obscures the hips with the objects hanging from her belt (which are well sculpted and textured, a first for the character and an interesting detail that shows what Hasbro is now capable of), so I really didn't even notice it as an issue before you mentioned it.

But a big part of what I love about the figure is her articulation, and the ball-joint hips allow her to be posed in some really cool ways. She's significantly more expressive than most other figures in the line because of this, and I think giving her slightly wider hips is completely fine for this reason. (She's not as bad as diaper-wearing Bespin Luke, at least.)

Would you have been as harsh on this figure if people hadn't rated it so highly? (Conversely, I don't know if I would have rated it so high if I hadn't had such low expectations for it, since I didn't think we needed a new Aayla that badly, so that could be a factor for both of us.)